Gear

Ken Meidell commutes by ferry and bicycle five days a week from his Bainbridge Island home to the gritty industrial area south of Seattle, WA’s downtown. When he gets to work, he parks his bike in a secure indoor room with a mural of a mountain lake on the wall, next to dozens of other commuter bikes. “It’s Bike to Work month,” Meidell explained, “so there might be a few more bikes here than normal, but really this is a pretty typical day.” A typical day at Cascade Designs, where Meidell is Vice President of Sales and Marketing.

Founded in the early 1970s when three ex-Boeing engineers made the first Therm-a-Rest pad prototype using a modified sandwich grill, Cascade Designs is now a 450-person company that produces a range of field-proven outdoor gear.

John Burroughs, Cascade’s co-founder, refers to himself as “chief product tester,” but it’s quite apparent that Burroughs’ philosophy that “the best way to know the customer is to be one” has resulted in a company where ideas, products and feedback come from everywhere, every day. Meidell points to his obviously well-used SealLine Urban Backpack as an example: “One of our guys needed a rugged, weatherproof bag for his bike commute through the damp Seattle winters. He made the first one of these by modifying some of our existing river gear and now it’s our best-selling urban product. We make them right here in Seattle and I still get a thrill every time I see somebody ride by with one.”

Local manufacturing has been part of Cascade Designs since day one. “You want to make stuff near where you’re selling it because you can provide much better service that way,” said Burroughs. Products are designed to be tough. Having the customer service department in the same location as design and manufacturing means that when product shortcomings do come to light, they can be corrected efficiently.

Local manufacturing also minimizes shipping, reduces the company’s carbon footprint and provides living wage jobs for the local community. In the early 1980s, demand in Europe prompted Cascade Designs to open Cascade Designs Limited in Midleton, Ireland. While some Cascade products are produced in Asia, 80 percent of the manufacturing business is in Seattle and Ireland. Environmental stewardship also manifests itself in Burroughs’ belief that “one of the best ways to be sustainable is to design products that will last a long time.”

Environmental concerns led to the creation of another innovative Cascade Designs product, the Compressible Pillow. Making the ProLite series Therm-a-Rests involves punching a lot of star-shaped holes in the foam. These leftover foam stars were being used as packing material or recycled into carpet backing, but a Cascade Designs employee took some of the foam stars and used them for pillow stuffing. According to Meidell, the prototype “looked kind of lumpy but it compressed well and slept great!”

While Cascade Design products such as tents, sleeping pads, stoves and cookware have long found homes in the panniers of long-distance bike tourists, tough, light gear is often just as useful in the city. “My PackTowl isn’t just part of my back country kit,” Meidell explained, “it’s part of my everyday commute.”

cascadedesigns.com